Adsorption of Proteins at Solid Surfaces

Ellipsometry has a very high thin film sensitivity and can resolve sub-nm changes in the thickness of a protein film on a solid substrates. Being a technique based on photons in and photons out it can also be applied at solid-liquid interfaces. Ellipsometry has therefore found many in situ applications on protein layer dynamics but studies of protein layer structure are also frequent. Numerous ex situ applications on detection and quantification of protein layers are found and several biosensing concepts have been proposed. In this chapter, the use of ellipsometry in the above mentioned areas is reviewed and experimental methodology including cell design is briefly discussed. The classical ellipsometric challenge to determine both thickness and refractive index of a thin film is addressed and an overview of strategies to determine surface mass density is given. Included is also a discussion about spectral representations of optical properties of a protein layer in terms of a model dielectric function concept and its use for analysis of protein layer structure.